Now I was invested in what was going on- Quincy parents could impact the Galesburg basketball program. We feel Galesburg and the Galesburg school district has built up a program which allows our girls basketball players to feel special and celebrated. Thursday nights have been our night, and our community comes out in huge numbers to cheer on our girls.
It was mentioned that they wanted girl/boy doubleheaders. It really bothered me that maybe some people who have done little, if any research, would dictate to other schools how the programs should be run.
In my new job as a blogger, I decided to do some research to see what other schools and conferences were doing with their schedules. I got feedback from 12 athletic conferences with 10 3A/4A, and 2 1A/2A conferences.
The issue has to do with whether the girls have an opportunity to play “prime time.” Times change, at one time when the issue was brought up at Galesburg, the feedback from governing agencies was that anything from Thursday night thru Sunday night was considered to be prime time. For most schools and athletic conferences, the issue seems to be on whether the girls teams have the opportunity to play on Friday nights.
If playing similar number of Friday nights is being compliant with Title IX, and not playing similar number of Friday nights is being non-compliant with Title IX, seven of the athletic conferences that I looked at would be considered to be compliant, while five of the conferences would be considered non-compliant.
The five “non-compliant” conferences play these schedules-
Girls Monday-Thursday, Boys Tuesday-Friday
Girls Monday-Wednesdays, Boys Tuesdays-Fridays
Girls Monday-Saturday, Boys Tuesdays-Fridays
Girls- Thursdays-Saturday, Boys Tuesdays-Fridays
The seven athletic conferences who would be considered to be in compliance, have used one of three scheduling methods. They have scheduled both girls and boys on Fridays with one at home and one on the road. Others have alternated girls playing one week on Fridays and another week the boys on Fridays. And the least common approach is playing double headers.
Three of the conferences schedule the boys and girls to both play on each Friday. The girls play at home and the boys play on the road, or vice versa. While this would seem on the surface to be an easy and efficient solution, it is a schedule that players and coaches tend to find unsatisfactory. Players are playing basketball because they like basketball, and they tend to be basketball fans. With this schedule, they never get to see the other gender play their games. Imagine if Joey Range and the Streaks boys are playing for the conference title vs Moline at Galesburg and the girls team is playing at Moline. Coaches claim that conferences who have chosen this schedule have found that their attendance and fan interest in both boys and girls has greatly diminished. The atmosphere for boys and girls varsity games becomes similar to the fan interest in freshman and FS basketball.
None of the conferences that I contacted had chosen to play exclusively boy/girl doubleheaders, but three of the conference play a few boy/girl doubleheaders. The concern with this approach is that often the girls are the “prelim” game to the main event. Title IX says if schools go with double-headers they need to have the girls play an equal number of the “prime” or second game. Coaches that I talked to said the problem is that when the girls play the second game, too often the crowd then leaves. So as the girls are warming up, fans are leaving. Obviously that is not a good situation.
Coaches complain that in the double-header, they often struggle to see their FS team play because they may play in either a different gym or a different night. As any HS coach knows, to have a good varsity team, you must develop a good basketball program. The double-header concept does not promote program development.
Administrators tend to like double headers because they see it as a way to reduce supervision- cover two games in one night.
Four of the conferences- alternate weeks with one week the girls playing Fridays and the next week the boys playing on Fridays. Or the girls playing for 2-3 weeks on Fridays and then the boys play on Fridays for 2-3 weeks. This is the approach that most players and most coaches prefer. Of the conferences looking for methods to become in compliant with Title IX, this is the most preferred method of those schools.
With a plan to alternate who plays on Fridays, a concern would be on what impact this schedule would have on boys attendance. The reality is that if the boys played on Thursday instead of Friday, they would probably have about the same crowd. And girls players and coaches who think moving to Friday will create a bigger crowd, they may get a small bump but it will not result in doubling their crowd.
From a coaches standpoint, playing on Thursdays and Saturdays is the best basketball option. You have Monday thru Wednesday to have good practices and allow for player development. The Friday practice is an opportunity when you can go over the game from the night before and walk thru Saturdays game. Thru the years, we have found no difference in our crowd size whether we were playing on Thursdays or on Fridays. Playing on Thursday and Saturday is great from basketball perspective.
My conclusion would be that double-headers and boys at home/girls on road (or vice-versa) are bad solutions. Setting up a schedule where they alternate Fridays makes sense. While it may not impact crowd size as much as some might hope, it is worth sending a positive message to female athletes. By sharing Fridays, the message becomes you are not second class citizens.
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